13 November 2012

Familiar To Millions is a live album by Oasis from their July 21, 2000 concert at Wembley Stadium and was released on 13th November 2000. Familiar to Millions debuted at a respectable #5 in the UK charts with 57,000 copies sold in the first week. To date Familiar to Millions has sold around 310,000 copies in Britain alone (Platinum) and has estimated world sales of 1 million. The album was initially released simultaneously on six formats: DVD, VHS, Double CD, Double Cassette, Triple Vinyl and MiniDisc.

Track listing

All tracks written by Noel Gallagher, except where noted. Times are taken from the Double CD edition of the album.

Complete Discography (inc. international releases) with audio clips and artwork.

Stunning Dolby 5.0 stereo sound.

CDRom element - links to an exclusive page on the Oasis website with as-yet unseen photos and Songplayer module where fans can teach themselves to play 'Live Forever'.

'Tambourine' icon - click it and it takes you to and from the documentary in real time. A first for a non-film release.

The VHS features the whole show and a 20 minute documentary (entitled 'Mad Fer It') featuring exclusive interviews with Liam and Noel Gallagher. This documentary is unique to the VHS format.

Audio Version (CD / Vinyl / Cassette / MiniDisc)

The CD features a extra bonus track, a cover of The Beatles' song "Helter Skelter", which was recorded at the Riverside Theatre, Milwaukee, WI, USA on April 16, 2000.

A highlights CD was released on October 1, 2001 to celebrate Oasis' tenth anniversary as a band. "Fuckin' In The Bushes", "Step Out", "Stand By Me", "Hey Hey My My", and "Helter Skelter" were all ommitted.

As Liam didn't bother to sing the choruses of "Wonderwall" and also changed the words to other parts of the song ("By now you should have somehow... realised not to sniff glue" / "And all the lights that light the way are... doin' me fuckin' 'ead in!") at the July 21 gig, the version on the various audio formats features a different vocal track to the original one recorded at Wembley. This also applies to Noel's backing vocals. Most of these overdubbed vocals were recorded live at Oasis' gig at the Yokohama Arena, Tokyo, on March 5, 2000. Only one line: "I'm sure you heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt", is from the actual Wembley gig, as Liam slightly messed up this line in the Tokyo performance.

The audio version of the album is also missing various bits of between-track banter.

Other Trivia

A promo video of the Wembley version of "Gas Panic!" was distributed to music channels. The video featured visuals from throughout the gig and was slightly edited down to 6:57.

A "Gas Panic!" promo CD was issued in Brazil to promote Oasis' appearance at the Rock In Rio festival on January 14, 2001. The 2-track CD included the album version and an edited version of the Wembley track, which was edited down to 4:28.

The live album came about after the chaotic Wembley gig of July 22, 2000. This concert was being broadcast live to dozens of countries across the world but was hampered by an extremely drunk Liam Gallagher, whose out-of-tune singing and general ranting made it into an unappealing showcase of Oasis' live capabilities in the eyes of Sony BMG, who were worried about a large number of bootleg recordings being distributed.

Each of the six different formats (plus the 2001 highlights CD) had a different colour for its own cover art.